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By Lookout Staff

September 6, 2011 -- Everyone has a story to tell, and the Santa Monica Public Library will be celebrating that fact Saturday with the return of its Living Library.

Living books – a Muslim, a homeless advocate, a transvestite, and a Communist are among them – will be available for a 30-minute check out during which library patrons can engage in fruitful conversations with the books, who are guaranteed to broaden their intellectual and cultural horizons.

“This unique event is an opportunity to bring together people who have special interests, beliefs, or experiences to speak with people from different backgrounds and share their personal story,” said Public Services Librarian Nancy Bender.

“Books and readers have the opportunity to speak personally and in private in a structured, protected, free space within a limited time but without any further commitment,” she said.

Reservations will begin at 11 a.m Saturday, September 10 at the Main Library at 601 Santa Monica Boulevard. Thirty-minute check-outs are available from noon to 4 p.m.

There are some special library rules to ensure that the books are treated with care and respect:

“The reader must return the book in the same mental and physical condition as borrowed. It is forbidden to cause damage to the book, tear out or bend pages, get food or drink spilled over the book, or hurt the book’s dignity in any other way. The reader is responsible for preserving the condition of the book.”

If 30 minutes isn't enough time to delve into the riches of the book's story, a reader can renew the book if no one else has put on hold on it, and the book agrees.

The Santa Monica Public Library has hosted living libraries since 2008. The international movement began in 2000 when a group of Danish youth, alarmed by the violence around them, conceived of the idea as a way to combat prejudice and encourage dialogue.

“In our way of thinking a lot of the serious violence happening between people who did not know each other...was motivated by conflict but escalating in its levels because the two parties saw each other as adversaries,” Living Library founder Ronni Abergel told the Greek Human Library.

“So we thought how can we get people who probably see each other as 'opposites' to sit down and talk and maybe realize that they have more in common than what seperates them,” said Abergel.

Learn more about the Human Library Project at www.humanlibrary.org

The Santa Monica Public Library is wheelchair accessible. For special disabled services, call Library Administration at (310) 458-8606 at least one week prior to event. The Main Library is served by Big Blue Bus lines 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, and 10.